One aspect I wasn’t able to get into was the approach some hitters take to combat Buehrle’s “Get it and go” mindset, which will be on display again tonight at Marlins Park against Johan Santana and the Mets.

Rather than stepping out of the box just before he’s about to deliver the pitch, some have figured out that Buehrle doesn’t like it when they just stand in there and get ready before he does.

“It’s just funny,” Buehrle says of these mind games. “You hear guys — a guy that comes over to the team or guys you face a lot — they’ll say that’s their game plan, I guess, going in: ‘Hey, make this guy take his time. Step out.’ It’s funny because it doesn’t bother me.

“The only time it bothers me is when a hitter stands in the box and he takes a pitch and it’s like he’s almost ready before me. That p—-s me off more than the guys who keep saying, ‘Time out, time out.’ It doesn’t bother me. I know I work quick and those guys are going to do that. It’s the guys that just take a pitch and stand there and it’s like they’re trying to beat me at it. That’s about the only time I work faster.”

He won’t name names, but he knows who they are.

“I’m like, ‘Hurry up and get the ball. You’re going to try to beat me? I’m going to try to rush and beat you,’ “ Buehrle says. “Some guys just may say, ‘The first pitch on this guy I’m taking this pitch.’ Instead of stepping out and doing everything, they just stand there and they’re ready. I’m like, ‘Oh, you son of a b—h, now it’s time to make sure I’m a little bit faster, try to beat you.’ ”

The complete list of baseball’s active pitchers with the 15 shortest average game times (minimum 75 starts) looks this way:

Comments (1 Comment)

MIKE BERARDINO is still living the dream he first hatched as a young boy growing up in South Florida in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He’s writing about sports for a living. Best of all, he’s doing it in a now-crowded South Florida sports landscape teeming with talent, passion and, yes, sometimes even controversy. As the newest sports columnist at the Sun Sentinel, where he’s worked since February 1998, most recently as a Dolphins beat writer, Mike will draw on his many experiences over the years covering virtually every major sport and event. You name it, he’s been on the scene: World Series, Summer and Winter Olympics, Super Bowls, NBA Finals, NCAA Final Fours, BCS Championships, Wimbledon, the Masters, NASCAR Sprint Cup and on and on. Talk about living the dream. And now, with this new role and a daily blog forum for his many ideas and opinions, it just keeps getting better.